Tennis great Arthur Ashe has his own monument on Richmond's Monument Avenue, which was originally reserved for Confederate generals.

Virginia Newsbeat

BLACK BUSINESS AFFINITY INDEX RATING RANK 1

The governor has his own table at a black-owned restaurant

When Thompson Hospitality opened a new casual dining brand inside a Richmond, VA mall this year, Gov. Terry McAuliffe was given his own personal table, a measure of how things have changed in the former capital of the Confederacy.

Ranked number one in the #BLACKDOLLARSMATTER: State of Black Business, 12th edition ratings of the Black Business Affinity Index, Virginia is the only state with a cabinet department devoted to supplier diversity and uses its initiatives as a baseline to encourage other states. If you are an out-of-state company wishing to be certified as a minority business in Virginia. your state of origin has to substantially meet the same standards as Virginia. Policy choices like those are one reason that more than half of the states now meet to some degree our Ten Key Factors for Black Business Success.

Black business is big business in Virginia, particularly among federal defense contractors, but also in emerging enterprises which utilize economic development programs to create jobs. An upcoming announcement will unveil a factory to make solar panels in the southern part of the state by one of the 50 Most Imoortant African-Americans in Technology.

African-American businesses generate an estimated $8.231 billion in Virginia, with an estimated 5,727 creating 59,088 jobs. Of the 80,522 estimated total companies, 42,199 are led by women with 36,148 headed by men. (Numbers may not add up due to range of error.) Preliminary data from the Survey of Business Owners in 2012 has been incorporated into @BLACKDOLLARSMATTER, including industry specific detail for each state. For the whole report, order at blackmoney.com.